Hello, teachers, What does this sentence mean?

[Harry12345]

Hello, teachers, What does this sentence mean?

My mother has been to the farm. She has not a few apples in her basket.

Does it mean she has many apples or she just only has several apples. Thank you!

[Rover_KE]

She has a lot of apples.

(But it's not a colloquial way of putting it.)

Rover

[Gillnetter]

Hello, teachers, What does this sentence mean?

My mother has been to the farm. She has not a few apples in her basket.

Does it mean she has many apples or she just only has several apples. Thank you!

It's an odd sentence. To me, it either means that she has less than a few apples or she has more than a few apples. In either case she does not have a few apples. When using "few" you should understand that there is not an exact number indicated.

[Karima-19]

It's an odd sentence. To me, it either means that she has less than a few apples or she has more than a few apples. In either case she does not have a few apples. When using "few" you should understand that there is not an exact number indicated.

Yes, me too I understand from the meaning of the sentence that there are many apples in the basket. This post remember me when I studied the lesson of "Adverb of quantity: (few, fewer, a few, some, a lot, lots of, etc...) So, my teacher told us that few is positive (i.e several/uncountable number) and a few is negative ( some/quantity which you can count easily).

[Gillnetter]

Yes, me too I understand from the meaning of the sentence that there are many apples in the basket. This post remember me when I studied the lesson of "Adverb of quantity: (few, fewer, a few, some, a lot, lots of, etc...) So, my teacher told us that few is positive (i.e several/uncountable number) and a few is negative ( some/quantity which you can count easily).

So...let's see how your teacher's advice holds up -

"Few men have flown across the North Pole." How many have flown across the North Pole - not many, a few.

"A few men have flown across the North Pole." How many have flown across the North Pole - not many, a few.

"She has not taken a few flights across the North Pole." How many flights has she taken across the North Pole - not as many as a few but it's possible that she took more than a few. If we call few three, then we can say that she has taken no flights, one flight, or two flights. We can also say that since she has not taken a few flights she has taken more than three - four or up will work.

[Harry12345]

Thank you!